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An Official Ranking Of All 84 Outfits Lindsay Bluth Wore In 'Arrested Development' Season 1
While wearing her outfit for the second coming of Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, Lindsay Bluth says, "Look at us! We're dressed like we're in the '60s. It’s the 21st century, we should be dressing like it's the '80s." And while she does sometimes dress like she's in the '80s, her style isn't quite so easy to pin down. But, if you look at all of Lindsay Bluth's outfits from Season 1 of Arrested Development, you do see some themes. For one, she likes random straps to hang off of her garments.
On November 2, Arrested Development turns 15, and to honor this milestone, I have rounded up all 84 of Lindsay's Season 1 outfits. It's made clear throughout the series that Lindsay loves fashion, but the ensembles she comes up with run the gamut from "Something You'd See On The Red Carpet Of The 2003 Teen Choice Awards" to "Oh, God, What Is That Furry Thing?"
What's clear that Lindsay likes shawls, white ankle boots, a certain pair of white pajamas, skirt suits, embroidered robes, and clothes that have random extra pieces of fabric sticking off of them. What's less clear is how to rank her style. The outfits that are actually wearable for a normal person are the less exciting, so does that mean they rank lower or higher?
It seems the best way is to try to rank them in terms of how ridiculous they are. A ridiculous outfit is an entertaining outfit, and the ridiculous outfits are the ones that seem most typically Lindsay.
I mean, we can barely see it. Can't really pass judgement, but it looks pretty non-ridiculous
Everything kid Lindsay wears for the J. Walter Weatherman flashbacks is very chill.
Plain white pajamas are inoffensive. (These same ones later appeared in Episodes 14 and 17.)
This is the best look we get at this one, so let's just assume it's a plain black dress.
This may be her most timeless outfit of the entire season.
Just a T-shirt.
Pretty... non-distracting.
A white lacy top. Very plain.
Pretty!
Cute!
Looks like a black wrap dress to me.
This is a cute coat.
Just a regular ol' wrap dress.
Yep.
Nothing fancy.
It does appear to have some extra fabric like Lindsay likes, but, still, it's a black dress.
It works for the occasion, sure.
This is for the black and white picture, not the red dress (that comes later). From what we can tell, it's another black dress, but one with two different sleeves.
Sure, it's fine.
Fine.
There are far more intense ruffles to come.
We now enter the robe portion.
While they're sort of over-the-top...
...they're also pretty...
...and not meant to be worn outside...
...so that helps.
It's not that ridiculous, but is funny to wear while making an announcement about becoming a cage dancer.
This seems fine to wear while making protest signs.
Whatever this is, it looks like it's appropriate to wear while nursing a hangover.
The two-tone sleeves on this make me think something questionable lurks behind that kitchen counter.
These next few can all be referred to as "understandably dated."
She could totally work in an office in this.
Outside of another image in the intro, this is the first real appearance of Lindsay's white boots.
It's a loud coat, but it's a cool coat.
Again, it's over-the-top, but it's also kinda cute.
More boots!
The dress is fine enough, and we can assume she wouldn't have actually styled it this way if she wasn't just messing around... probably.
It is a plain dress, but she wore hoop earrings for her H.O.O.P. benefit, so that adds some ridiculousness points.
This one's pretty middle of the road.
She went really '70s here.
This seems very Lindsay, but in a quieter way.
Meh.
Meh.
This is just kinda silly.
So many strappy things!
That fur thing is a purse, right?
It's kind of hard to tell what's going on, but that appears to be a crochet skirt that only looks like a blanket.
Just your run of the mill couples therapy outfit.
I'd like to get a closer look at this.
Why not dress like a ringmaster when confronting your husband about his never nude-ness?
Classic, but she gets a slight pass for it being the '80s.
It's a shirt with holes it in (on purpose) and a skirt with grommets all over it. This was worn with ostrich boots, as Michael pointed out.
Tie dye and ruffles.
Pretty intense for parent-teacher night.
Bonus points for the boombox.
It's a lot.
Lindsay's first prison visit outfit didn't go over to her liking, which lead to some more... interesting choices you'll see further down.
This one ranks better than the one below since she didn't really wear this by choice.
She was more into the idea here.
A new ensemble for the prisoners.
She was really proud of this one.
Oof.
We can blame Carrie Bradshaw.
Wow!
Her T-shirt says "Neuter Fest", in case you're wondering.
Who knows.
What are those sleeves doing?!
This is her classic protest-turned-cage-dancing outfit.
Nothing to see here.
It's a fur vest/cardigan combo. Of course.
Arm warmers!!!
Oof again.
This had to be number one. It's memorable. It's ridiculous. And it was purposely worn to attract the attention of her father's fellow prison inmates. Well done, Lindsay Bluth. Well done.
